Duncan & Boyd Jewelers to close after 51 years in business

Ron Boyd of Duncan & Boyd Jewelers said he and his wife Cheri made a tough, emotional decision to close the business that has been a staple in downtown Amarillo for decades. (Shaie Williams / For the Amarillo Globe-News)

Duncan & Boyd Jewelers is closing after 51 years in business. (Shaie Williams / For the Amarillo Globe-News)

Shirley Eudy of Duncan & Boyd Jewelers works the phones Tuesday at the venerable jewelry store that announced it will be shutting its downtown Amarillo doors. (Shaie Williams / For the Amarillo Globe-News)

Ron Boyd had a goal — as long as he had his health, he would run his jewelry store until he was 80.

But he and his wife Cheri this week made what they call a hard, emotional decision. They will retire and close Duncan and Boyd Jewelers at 809 S. Tyler St. where Ron has worked the last 51 years.

“I don’t feel like I’m old, even though I’m 74,” he chuckled. “I still can do just about anything a 60-year-old can do.

“There is a time and season for everything.”

Thursday is the official start date of the store’s “going out of business” period.

The downtown Amarillo staple started as Wagner’s Jewelers in 1923 across the street in the First National Bank building. In 1964, they had the parking lot at the southeast corner of Southwest Eighth Avenue and South Tyler Street removed, put up a brand new building and moved into it.

“That corner was never anything but a jewelry store,” Boyd said.

He was hired there in 1967 by John Duncan, the son-in-law of Fred Wagner, who was in the process of selling his stores to Zales. That same year, Amarillo’s location became Duncan and Boyd.

Before becoming a jeweler, Boyd remembers wanting to be a forest ranger or a veterinarian, not a retail clerk in a store. But he said Duncan was a great mentor who taught him more than just the jewelry business.

“He taught me the love of the business and how to appreciate fine things,” he explained. “Fine things are like finding great land — it always sells first because there’s just not that much of it.”

When Duncan retired in 1985, Boyd bought the store from him but said he kept the name because had already been established as one synonymous with quality.

Boyd said he had been seriously considering retirement for the last seven months. A couple of back surgeries were part of the equation. So was what the store went through last month.

“December was kind of the nail in the coffin,” he said. “It’s normally a great month, but this time, it was half of what we normally do. I thought, ‘This might be an eye-opener here, one of those signs.’”

He said those two factors more than any others forced him to think more about the future.

Unlike Vess Barnes — who decided to sell his Barnes Jewelry store at 100 Westgate Parkway to longtime General Manager Don Adams rather than shutter its doors — Boyd said he has tried to train people in hopes of doing the same thing, but with little success.

At one time, Boyd’s Austin store was being run by his son, “but he had a giant robbery several years ago and lost $1.5 million (in merchandise) and that just kind of took the wind out of his sails.”

Now comes Boyd’s going-out-of-business sale, during which he will try to sell most of an estimated is $6.5 million worth of inventory. He is offering a sneak preview sale for his valued customers Thursday through Saturday with prices discounted as much as 80 percent. The sale is open to the public starting Monday.

“Whether it’s 30 days, 90 days, or four months, we’ll stay open until the majority of that is gone,” he said.

Center City of Amarillo Executive Director Beth Duke had to catch her breath when she learned the news about the closing.

“Ron has been a stalwart of keeping his business downtown,” she said. “I’m really sorry to know that that wonderful institution is closing.”

Duke said one example of his downtown leadership involves the entity she now leads.

“He is one of the founders of Center City,” she said. “More than 25 years ago, he hired the first executive director.”

She added that Boyd is also one of the unsung heroes of the city’s charitable community.

“Whenever there was a silent auction, you could always count on Duncan and Boyd to be right there helping raise money for charity,” she said.

Jason Harrison, the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce vice president for business development, said Boyd and his jewelry store have been great community partners for a long time.

“And all they’ve done for the Chamber, too,” he said. “They hosted ‘Farmer of the Year’ every year at the Ag Luncheon.”

Harrison said he doesn’t think the store’s closing is a sour sign for retail business downtown. Instead, he believes downtown growth will continue to be great.

“If anything, I think this is just more of a coincidence that it was downtown just because that’s where it is,” he hinted. “I really don’t see it as anything more.”

As for what the building at 809 S. Tyler could evolve into, Harrison pointed to the development on that block as a sign of things to come.

“That area right there is about to be very popular with WT (its new Amarillo Center) right across the street,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be any problem with getting a business tenant or anything in there.”

While his business won’t be operating in Amarillo much longer, Boyd said he and Cheri will remain interwoven into the community.

Boyd was the 2008 Amarillo Globe-News Man of the Year and served two terms as an Amarillo city commissioner. He has also served on many boards, including United Way of Amarillo and Canyon, Center City, the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, the Amarillo Area Foundation and Panhandle PBS.

With his retirement, Boyd said he and his wife will have more time to devote to their favorite causes.

“This is where we live and make our home,” he said. “We want to do everything we can to help this community. Who knows where God is going to take me?”